Part V: Implementing IPv4

Chapter 17: Operating Cisco Routers

Chapter 18: Configuring IPv4 Addresses and Static Routes

Chapter 19: Learning IPv4 Routes with RIPv2

Chapter 20: DHCP and IP Networking on Hosts

Part V Review

Part V of this book presents the foundations of what a Cisco router does and how to configure Cisco routers to implement those features. Much like Part II of this book introduced switch features, switch CLI, and all the common features most sites would use in Cisco switches, Part V walks through the most common features for Cisco routers.

Chapter 17 focuses on the basics of installing and operating a Cisco router. However, routers need some configuration before they can correctly route packets. So, Chapters 18 and 19 then show how routers learn the required IP addresses and subnets so that routers can do their jobs of routing IPv4 packets to all destinations. Chapter 18 first looks at configuring IP addresses, as well as static IP routes. Chapter 19 then shows how routers can dynamically learn about remote subnets using a routing protocol, in this case the Routing Information Protocol (RIP) Version 2.

Chapter 20 closes Part V with more of a host focus on the IPv4 network. This section walks through what happens when a host first connects to the network, first discovering its own IPv4 address with Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), resolving hostnames with Domain Name System (DNS), and then learning IP-MAC mapping information with Address Resolution Protocol (ARP).